BMW GS Trophy Namibia experience: Into the Wild

It took 10 minutes after driving out of the Hosea Kutako airport in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, to understand that this was going to be a trip like nothing else. Following a short duration of being torn between surprise and irritation that Namibia has smoother roads than Mumbai, our Toyota Hiace turned off the highway, and that was the last I saw of tarmac for nearly a week. After an hour or so of bouncing and rattling down a wide gravel road at about 80kph, we pulled into the Midgard Country Estate, which would be home for the next five days before the Trophy set off.  

THE INTRODUCTION

Midgard was a great introduction to how different things are in Namibia. This gigantic property covers 162 square kilometres, and you’ll see groups of wild warthogs grazing the lawns along the drive-in. While Midgard is a proper luxury resort, that’s not the experience that the BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy is about, which is why we were asked to set up our tents instead of checking into a room.

This is a unique event that can be best described as an adventure rally that’s not a race. The first Trophy was held in 2008 in Tunisia and has been running every two years since at some exotic location around the planet. Participation is open to BMW motorcycle owners, who must qualify to represent their country in teams of three.

                           There were riders from over 25 countries at the 2024 GS Trophy. 

Qualifiers for the GS Trophy occur in the year between the event, and for 2024, there were 16 male and six female teams with over 25 countries represented. Anand Dharesan, Dev Venkatesh and Sardar Shahan Khan were the three best riders who qualified to form Team India.  

Each country also has a media representative ride along with them, and that’s where I come into the picture. While the media rider gets to ride their own bike alongside the team for the whole event, they cannot contribute to the point-scoring process. Speaking of points, they are only scored in special stage competitions that are held across the journey.

THE FIRST TEST

The 2024 GS Trophy was held over six days, with us media folks arriving a couple of days before the teams. The reason we were brought in early was to see if we could handle the week that lay ahead. So, after a full day of procedures, paperwork and presentations, we went out the next morning to get a taste of what this year’s Trophy was all about. It was half a day of riding where we got everything from steep rocky climbs to soft sandy tracks and even deep sand in dry riverbeds. 

The training session that BMW organised for us in Rajasthan earlier this year with Vijay Parmar was a huge help. Now familiar with such terrain, I was spared the shock of experiencing deep sand on a big bike for the first time. I managed to deal with it well enough, although the instructor’s repeated suggestions to ride in the deep sand as much as possible was a hint of what lay ahead. Most of the journalists made the cut, but a few decided to cover the Trophy from the interior of a support car after we were assured that this was just a small appetiser of what was to come.

This was also my first time on the official Trophy bike – a mostly standard R 1300 GS with some accessories like bar risers, wider footpegs and engine crash protection. The motor was completely stock, with the exception of an Akrapovič slip-on exhaust. The most valuable addition to the bike was the blocky Metzeler Karoo 4 tyres that lent a lot of confidence off-road. As it turns out, we’d never run super low tyre pressures through this whole event, and the tyres would be set between 26 and 30 PSI throughout. Participants aren’t allowed to tweak their tyre pressures, and while low pressures would have been a big advantage in the sand, you can’t really complain if everyone is on a level playing field.

THE ARRIVAL 

The ‘players’ themselves started pouring in the next day as their flights from all corners of the world descended into Windhoek. Once the excitement of finally meeting each other (and their bikes!) died down, the next day and a half went into the same prep for the participants that we journalists had already been through.

Sena communicators were installed inside the helmets, Leatt neck braces were custom-fitted to each rider’s shoulders, and then began the many briefings. These would cover a wide range of topics, right from how Namibia was the second-least populated country on Earth to how the event would be conducted over the next six days. A large segment was dedicated to safety, including how there was a rich assortment of poisonous and/or otherwise hostile creatures we had to keep an eye out for. 

Armed to the teeth with information, all that was left to do was get on the bikes and get on with it! The following morning, two years’ worth of training, qualifying and dreaming all came to the fore for the participants as the Trophy was flagged off.   

IT BEGINS!

Barely 15 minutes into this 1,350km adventure, we arrived at the first special stage, which was held in an abandoned copper mine. This was a straightforward trials-style challenge where the riders had to navigate through a tight and technical path. Dropping the bike, dabbing your feet or cutting the path all lead to negative points, and the team that finished in the quickest time would win.

Team India seemed to do quite well, and while the scores would only come out at the end of the day, we rode on from the stage in high spirits. Soon after, a long, extremely steep hill climb presented itself, on which two riders were already stuck. Watching them struggle wasn’t great for my confidence, but with plenty of cheering through the headsets as well as our super-enthusiastic marshal, Shahnawaz Karim, I messily bounced and slid my way all the way up in one go. Me fighting to keep the bike on track must have been quite the spectacle because there’s a reel of it on BMW Motorrad’s Instagram with about 1.5 million views!

The rest of the day progressed with more amazing terrain and hours of long, straight gravel roads where you sit in sixth gear at around 100kph as the bike gently squirms and weaves over the loose ground. It’s an uncomfortable feeling at first, but you soon grow to love it, although you have to be on the vigil for random rocks on the road. 

After a great lunch (the food was quite European and full of meat), it was time to face the second challenge of the day. This was our first introduction to deep sand, and it involved all three riders crossing a course designed over the dry Omaruru river bed as fast as possible. Dev flew past the course at a superb pace; Shahan managed quite well, too, but Anand got trapped in the deep sand a few times. But he still persevered, and with a little help from the other two (the media rider cannot assist at any time), they made it across the line with time to spare. At the end of the day, Team India was placed 11th out of the 16 male teams.

Endless sand

Day 2 began from Ai Aiba, where we camped the night before, and it would be a 184km loop with no tarmac and heaps of sand. Every morning, two countries were given the responsibility of loading the luggage truck, and on Day 2, it was us and Team Mexico. This meant that we were the last group to leave the campsite – each group consisted of two teams and one marshal. It wasn’t long before we were greeted with vast clouds of dust emerging over the vegetation and the sound of roaring GS motors at high revs as the riders ahead tried to free themselves from the sand – this day would be tough!

And sure enough, we kept running into long sections of deep sand again and again with almost no respite. Shift your weight far back, leave the handlebar as loose as possible, look where you want to go and keep the gas on! Slowly but steadily, we made great progress and even passed a few teams before the lunch break. Spirits were high, and we managed to do well in both the special challenges before lunch as well.

The terrain changed significantly post-lunch, and we were treated to much faster trails across an unbelievably stunning landscape that never seemed to end. There were some tough sandy patches, but it was a wonderful change from the morning’s slow struggle, and it really felt like we were on the adventure of a lifetime. It was all going superbly, until it suddenly wasn’t.

LOWS AND HIGHS

I don’t know if it was a lack of focus, a bit too much speed, or a combination of both, but I misread the sand through one of the many dry stream crossings and got thrown off the bike. Falls in sand are common, but this one was different because I landed on a hard surface in an awkward position with all my body weight focused on the back of the ribcage. 

Adrenaline helped me get back on the bike and continue riding for the next couple of hours to the next campsite at Spitzkoppe. Unfortunately, the pain got worse at night, and a tough call had to be made. On the one hand, I desperately wanted to keep riding, but on the other, I knew that while I could not help the team in any way, I could significantly hinder them if I was struggling and falling all the time.

Moreover, Day 3 and Day 4 were packed with hundreds of kilometres of almost brutally deep sand, so I decided to cover the progress from a support car while soothing my sore ribs and ego. But all was not lost because, while Day 2 didn’t go so well for our boys, Day 3 was a revelation!

We managed to win the photo competition; we came second in the first special challenge and fourth in another challenge as well. That big haul of points shot us all the way up to fifth overall and what was extra special was that the guys managed to do this on a truly gruelling day of riding. In fact, Shahan had a bad fall and hurt both his hands, but he swallowed some pills, gritted his teeth and rode through the pain – not just that day, but for the rest of the Trophy. 

Day 4 brought more equally difficult and spectacular riding through huge canyons and with endless deep sand to deal with. A couple of technical issues in the challenges meant we didn’t do so well that day and slipped back to 10th place overall. By this time, the fatigue was truly starting to set in, and this was the danger point where falling-outs could easily happen. But we were better than that, and the guys accepted the bad result and focused on better things the next day.

THE FINAL PUSH

With 400km to cover, Day 5 would be the longest of the Trophy as we rode from Swakopmund back to Midgard, and it’s one we’ll all remember fondly. For one, I was back on the bike, and it was so good to be riding with the team again! More importantly, the guys did really well in the special stages and not only clawed back to eighth place overall but were just seven points away from third rank. It was all up for grabs on the last day, where we’d have a final grand challenge at Midgard, where the Trophy began.

The final challenge on Day 6 was predictably tough, with a mix of all sorts of technical challenges as well as three steep sandy embankments that the riders had to clear. These were the real challenge, as they kept getting more and more torn apart as the teams completed their run. By the time it was our turn, the course was badly churned up to the point that one of us got trapped in the sand and couldn’t get out in time.

It was a heartbreaking end to a beautiful run, but despite that, Anand, Dev and Shahan still managed to finish 10th overall, which is the best an Indian team has ever done at the GS Trophy. But in the grand scheme of things, the GS Trophy is about so much more than just competition. It’s an event you can only do once in your life, but you’ll return with a lifetime of memories of an awesome ride on an incredible bike in an exotic land. Most of all, you’ll forge new friendships with some truly special people from around the world. It’s an experience very few will ever get to have, and it’s something I’ll never forget.